AI-Powered Virtual Staging: Collov.ai Advances Real Estate Visualization

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

21 May 2025

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With most homebuyers starting their search online, visual presentation has never been more critical. Collov.ai is helping real estate professionals meet this demand with speed and precision. The Silicon Valley-based startup has developed AI foundation models with spatial intelligence tailored for real estate, enabling agents to virtually stage properties in seconds instead of days.

“We live in a world where Zillow and property scrolling happens at lightning speed,” says Markk Tong, Founding Marketing & Sales Manager at Collov.ai. “Research from NAR finds that 97% of buyers begin their journeys online, and the quality of listing visuals is crucial. It’s a deal maker.”

The Virtual Staging Revolution

Despite widespread digital adoption across industries, real estate staging has remained surprisingly traditional. “We found that only 14% of real estate companies are using AI, and most commonly for property descriptions or social media content. Listing visuals remain largely untouched by AI innovations,” Tong explains.

Traditional staging methods come with significant drawbacks. Physical staging for luxury properties can cost between $20,000 to $40,000, while manual virtual staging typically involves outsourcing to teams in Southeast Asia, creating delays and coordination challenges.

Collov.ai’s solution streamlines this process dramatically: “Our platform allows any agent to simply upload a photo taken with their iPhone, select their preferred style, and within seconds, they’ll see multiple design variations that are MLS-ready to download.”

Designed for Real Estate Professionals

What distinguishes Collov.ai is its focus on simplicity. “We understand agents are too busy to learn complicated tools,” Tong explains. “Our slogan is: ‘As long as you can take a photo, you can do the design.'”

The platform offers two key advantages over traditional methods:

1. Speed and simplicity: The entire process takes seconds rather than days, with no technical expertise required.
2. Advanced editing capabilities: For users who want more customization, Collov.ai offers a “Chat Edit” feature, a chatbot that helps refine designs without requiring Photoshop skills.

“Chat Edit allows you to make small adjustments without hiring another graphic designer at $5 to $10 per image,” Tong says. “It’s really all-in-one, and you don’t need any knowledge regarding how to use AI or other tools.”

Maintaining Integrity in Visualization

In an industry where accuracy matters, Collov.ai has built important safeguards into its technology. “When AI generates new listing photos, we pay extra attention to not altering the structure of the space, which would violate regulations,” Tong emphasizes.

“Our model preserves the exact structure of the space without manipulating walls, ceilings, lighting, windows, or anything structural. We only clean the space and virtually stage the properties with furniture that fits your chosen style.”

This approach addresses a common concern with AI-generated imagery: inaccurate representations. By focusing on furniture placement rather than structural changes, Collov.ai ensures potential buyers receive an accurate representation of the property.

Real-World Impact

The platform is already making an impression among real estate professionals. Tong shares the example of Payden, a real estate advisor in San Francisco with 22 years of experience:

“With today’s economic uncertainties, he’s rethinking the necessity of spending $20,000 to $40,000 on staging,” Tong explains. “Now he’s using our AI to provide designs and help buyers imagine how spaces could look. He finds our turnaround fast, and the cost is just a fraction of traditional staging, a strategic move in this market.”

Property managers and investors are also finding value in the platform, using it to gain a competitive edge on listing websites. “When competing on sites like Zillow, visual quality is paramount,” Tong notes. “Our technology helps bring more traffic and engagement to listings.”

Beyond Virtual Staging

While virtual staging is Collov.ai’s current focus, the company is rapidly expanding its capabilities. Tong outlines several upcoming features:

1. Social media integration: Automatically generating properly sized posts for Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
2. Video walkthroughs: Converting static images into dynamic property tours.
3. One-click property websites: Creating comprehensive property websites with all generated visuals.
4. Shoppable designs: Matching virtually staged furniture with real products from partner brands.

“Once you generate something with our AI, there’s an option called ‘similar item detection,'” Tong explains. “You’ll see white dots on the furniture we’ve generated, and you can match with similar items from our catalog. Collov has been working with over 300 furniture brands including Anthropologie and RH, so we’ve accumulated millions of SKU images in our database.”

This feature elevates virtual staging from a purely marketing tool into a design resource, allowing potential buyers to not just visualize a space but also purchase the items they see.

The Future of Property Visualization

Looking ahead, Tong is particularly enthusiastic about advancements in video technology. “The video walkthrough will be the next significant development, and that’s exactly what we’re working on right now,” he reveals.

“What if you could take photos from different angles of each room, upload these images, and we use the latest AI models to generate a walkthrough video? We will reduce both cost and turnaround time even further.”

This development could fundamentally change how real estate professionals prepare listings. “It’s changing the traditional workflow with photographers and stagers,” Tong says. “As long as you have a phone to take photos, you’re not only getting virtual staging images but also video walkthroughs and everything else ready for social media and promotions.”

Simplifying AI for Real Estate

As professionals face increasing “AI fatigue” from juggling multiple complex tools, Collov.ai prioritizes simplicity. “The challenge with agents using tools like ChatGPT is that you need good prompting skills to get quality results,” Tong explains. “Agents don’t have time to become prompt engineers.”

Instead, Collov.ai conducts extensive pre-training before presenting AI features to users. “We’re pre-training the AI by understanding the industry, the knowledge, and the pain points. We do substantial internal work before presenting this AI to the end user.”

This philosophy extends to product design as well. “We believe in one click. We don’t want to overwhelm you with options or technical AI vocabulary. It’s about speaking your language with minimal complexity.”

For real estate professionals looking to enhance their property marketing without the learning curve of complex AI tools, Collov.ai offers a practical solution. The company currently provides two free photos for every new registration, allowing agents to try the service without commitment.